


Magical

by velocitygrass



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Wizards, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-13
Updated: 2014-07-13
Packaged: 2018-02-08 17:11:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1949421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/velocitygrass/pseuds/velocitygrass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being a wizard among humans has its limitations, but it's not a problem for Rodney—until he meets John.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Magical

**Author's Note:**

> Posted for McSheplets challenge #119: magical eureka

Getting kicked out of his home had been the best thing that ever happened to Rodney. He'd felt suffocated in the community of wizards where magic was a gift and not to be questioned. But Rodney was curious by nature. He wanted to understand everything and understanding meant questioning everything until you knew why it worked the way it did.

Curiosity, he'd learned, was very common in humans. So were other less admirable traits. Humans were dangerous when they felt threatened, so Rodney had learned to fit in.

He was working as a scientist. Far from being the opposite of magic, he found that science and magic beautifully built on each other. He used his magic to explore those parts of science for which no sufficient tools had been built yet. And he used science to explain how his magic worked when it interacted with the molecules around him.

He didn't use his magic _only_ for work. Since it came as naturally to him as breathing, Rodney used his magic in his everyday life at home. He couldn't imagine actually going through the trouble and preparing a meal instead of conjuring it. And human plumbing was still so primitive that he always used his magic to get exactly the right temperature for his showers.

While he saw no issue with using his magic for his personal convenience and well-being, he didn't use it for personal gain. He didn't conjure money or manipulate people to give him a raise or a promotion. He didn't use his powers to make people obey.

This was something that he wouldn't even have to think about in his old community, since wizards didn't have that kind of power over other wizards. But the human mind was weak in comparison, and Rodney knew that he could control it if he wanted to. He wasn't the kind of person, though, who was tempted by this.

Overall he kept away from humans. He didn't have any close friends. And he didn't have any relationships. He did have sex, though, every now and then, and it was one of the few moments where he used his magic to interact with the human mind at all.

He didn't make people have sex with him. He didn't even nudge them to notice him. Instead, when he went to a bar, he waited for people to look at him, and in that moment he probed their mind for a reaction. If it was neutral or negative, Rodney ignored them. But if it was positive, he made his move the old-fashioned, non-magic way.

Just like the shower or food, it was a matter of saving him the inconvenience of being shot down a few times before he found someone who liked him.

The women and men he picked up were only one-night-stands. If things went well, they weren't even staying the night. Rodney absolutely hated it when he couldn't conjure a coffee in bed first thing in the morning. It was one of the reasons why he'd never seriously considered dating a human. He didn't want to be forced to watch himself not just while he was at work, but also at home in his free time.

For many years, this hadn't been a problem for Rodney. He was quite happy with his life and didn't want more. Until he met John Sheppard.

John had picked _him_ up. Rodney hadn't even seen him when John had stood next to him and fixed him with a gaze so intense it had turned Rodney inside out. "Can I buy you a drink?" he'd eventually asked.

Hell, yes, Rodney had thought but not said. John was hot. It wasn't that hot guys were never into him, but they usually didn't look at him like that, like there wasn't anyone else in the room—or possible the world.

They'd had a drink and talked, but what came out of their mouths was completely irrelevant because Rodney only read John's gaze and his body language and all of it said that they were going to fuck and Rodney couldn't wait.

"Where do you live?" Rodney eventually asked.

John grinned. "Your place is better," he said.

Rodney usually preferred to go to their place, because it made it easier to wake up alone at home, but in this case he didn't care. They fucked all night long. It was the one-night-stand to end all one-night-stands. John was playing Rodney's body like a fine-tuned instrument of which he was the master.

They fucked until they fell asleep and when they woke up they fucked some more and Rodney didn't even miss his coffee, which was entirely unheard of and almost frightening.

What was even more frightening was that when John said goodbye, for the first time in Rodney's life, he didn't want to let him walk out of his life. Usually by this time he was eagerly waiting for his conquests to finally go away, but he wished that John would either stay or leave a number or promise to call.

In the end he didn't ask and John didn't offer.

The first few days after meeting John, Rodney told himself that it was just his libido talking. The sex had been so fantastic that his dick wanted more. But thoughts of John simply wouldn't go away, and it wasn't just the sex.

Rodney couldn't even remember what they'd talked about but he remembered feeling relaxed and amused by John. After two weeks, he admitted to himself that it wasn't just the sex. There'd been something about John and him that had just clicked. Or at least it had for Rodney.

He had no idea if John had forgotten the night immediately after the door of Rodney's apartment had closed behind him, or if he thought about Rodney too.

The problem was that unlike a human, who could only retrace his steps and hope that John would show up at that same bar again, Rodney would have ways to find him. But that would go against the rules he had imposed on himself. It went beyond mere convenience.

But more than that Rodney feared that if John wasn't interested in a repeat performance he might be tempted to make him compliant. It would be so easy to just nudge that little something in John's brain. Rodney could tell himself that John had wanted it before so it wasn't completely against his own nature.

It would be wrong on levels that Rodney had never skirted even though he had broken his own rules a few times.

So he forced himself not to act, though he did break down and went to that bar again on the same night at the same time. He tried not to be disappointed when John wasn't there. He waited. He didn't talk to anyone else or check their reactions to him.

Eventually, he went home alone, feeling for the first time in his life that he'd given something up when he'd started to live among people that weren't like him and who could never find out about his true nature.

He opened the door to his apartment, ready to drown his sorrows in an extravagant conjured meal when he found John waiting for him on the sofa in his living area.

Rodney's mouth opened, but for a moment he was speechless. Then his body reacted with a wave of want, but his brain was able to take over long enough to ask, "What are you doing here? How did you come in here?" The latter of which was the more troubling questions because Rodney had fortified his door not just with a human lock, but with magic.

"I opened the door," John said, a smile playing on his face.

Rodney blanched. He suddenly feared that something had to be very wrong if John had been able to get in.

John's expression shifted into worry. "Why don't you sit down and have a drink?" he asked—and conjured a glass into his hand from thin air.

Rodney stared.

"What? You thought you were the only wizard who left?" John asked.

Strangely, Rodney _had_ thought that. He'd never heard about someone leaving back when he'd been a part of the wizarding community. Then again, maybe they wouldn't want anyone to know.

"Rodney? Are you all right?" John asked. After a moment, he added more quietly, "Do you want me to leave again?"

This finally made Rodney talk. "No," he said. "Don't go."

John smiled. "You never even tried to scan my brain, did you?" he asked.

Rodney shook his head. "You did?" he asked. Then it occurred to him that if John had tried, he would have immediately noticed that he couldn't read Rodney's mind. "You knew?"

John nodded. "There are only very few of us here. And when I saw you..." He flushed.

Rodney thought of the night they'd spent together. "You've been looking for a wizard?" he asked.

"No," John shook his head. "I'd given up on that. I thought I'd have to hide it for the rest of my life or be alone. And that was fine. I'm used to being alone."

Rodney looked at John, and even though he couldn't scan his mind, he could see in his eyes the experiences that he'd made, so similar to his. "You're not alone," he said.

"No, I'm not," John said. He came closer to Rodney and handed him the drink.

Rodney took it and looked at John's face before focusing on his mouth. They could have another night like their first. They could wake up together, and if Rodney wanted coffee he could conjure it up. He wouldn't have to be afraid to be caught.

He could live his life among humans, doing the work he loved and still share his life with someone who understood him because he was the same.

"Stay?" Rodney asked.

"I wasn't going to leave," John said. "In fact now that we both know what we are, there are a few things I'd like to try," he added meaningfully.

Rodney blinked, the drink in his hand forgotten. He'd never even considered how he could use magic during sex. It hadn't been an option until now. And even without it the sex with John had been the best he'd ever had hands down. To think that it could be even better...

Rodney's eyes glazed over.

"Let me take that from you," John said, taking the glass and making it disappear in his hand. "Ready?" he asked, holding out his hand.

Rodney looked at it then up at John. "Ready," he said, taking it.

John smiled and led him to the bedroom. Rodney followed him in a daze of anticipation and happiness and the promise of a magical future.


End file.
